We will be training the manpower both in cooking and in fish processing – right from handling a live fish topackaging a finished product. Most of our cooks have been sent to Bangalore.Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), an NGO which works for the development and uplift of the sex workers of the state, is in talks with the State Fisheries Development Corporation (SFDC) on the project in which sex workers will be trained by the fisheries department. We sought the opinion of the sex workers and many of them and their children expressed their desire to work as cooks,” he said.”During Pujas we run about eight food pavilions in various parts of Kolkata and two in Bangalore. “The fisheries department had asked us for few women who could help in their kitchens and their fish processing units.”
The sex workers of Sonagachi in the city, Asias largest red light area, would don the chefs cap this Durga Puja at the various food pavilions run by the West Bengal fisheries department. DMSC lithium battery chainsaw bar chain has more than 1,30,000 registered sex workers in its fold. They would be trained in cooking various dishes for its food pavilions and cut and process raw fish which are sent to various departmental stores across the state.The move was specially welcomed by those who wish to quit the worlds oldest profession and their children who want to get rid of the stigma associated with it. As we need cooks weapproached Durbar and they agreed. They will cook for our food pavilions during Pujas,” Soumyajit Das, SFDC managing director told PTI.Samarjit Jana, an official of Durbar, told PTI that the training of the sex workers will begin from Monday. On remuneration, he said it will depend on the amount of fish that they will process, scale, cut fillets out of whole fish or dry every day.. In the first batch a total 30 sex workers will be sent for the training conducted by SFDC, which will organise a workshop for them.
Longer Sawchain